Just like many of you, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about where life is going to take me after college. As a liberal arts major, I try to keep an open mind and consider all the different career options that college will afford me.

There’s always the possibility of going to law school, but I also think about going to graduate school for journalism or doing PhD work in something related to English or political science. It’s certainly not an easy decision to make.

But there’s also another option that’s high up on my list: teaching. I remember last year I was having a conversation with an acquaintance about how I think teaching would be a great career choice considering my past experience tutoring students of all different age groups. I’ll never forget what this person said to me: “Yeah, I guess teaching is great, but I would have thought someone like you would have bigger fish to fry.”

That comment really stuck with me. I could tell in some ways he meant this as a compliment to me; after all, I do pretty well academically which will hopefully open a lot of doors for me when it’s time to apply for graduate school. But I really wasn’t very fond of the implications behind what he said. It’s as if he viewed teaching as a profession unworthy of me, like it’s a job whose field befits only the most unsuccessful of us.

That’s a sentiment with which I definitely can’t agree. I will concede that in the world of public (as well as parts of private) education there are many people who might not be entirely qualified for their positions. However, I don’t believe that reflects an obligation for people like me to avoid the pedagogical world. I think just the opposite is true: this nation is in desperate need of good classroom instructors. Teachers are an essential part of this country’s educational framework.

We entrust our future generations to their tutelage, so I think we should be working particularly hard to make sure the instruction our students receive at the secondary level is at least competent.

Not only that, but I know from experience that teaching can be one of the most rewarding jobs there is. If I were to become a teacher, I wouldn’t just want to help students do well enough on a test to get them into a college. The duty of a good teacher extends far beyond the classroom setting of drilling mindless and often remedial information into the heads of pupils ad nauseum.

A good teacher helps a student learn to think. Anyone can memorize the date when the Constitution was signed or when an important Supreme Court case was decided in a high school government class; being able to outline why those events and happenings were important involves a deeper and much more refined analysis. Watching as students not only absorb information but also understand what they’re learning as they become more passionate about academic subjects elicits a special feeling of accomplishment that few professions can match.

I’m still not entirely sure where I want to go once I finish studying here at SMU. Like many students here, I will likely have a multitude of options before me, which is certainly a good problem to have. That being said though, is teaching a career that’s unbecoming of many of us students here at SMU?

Personally, I say no. In fact, if anything, I think that right now teaching is a profession that I’m not worthy of, and I can only hope that one day after my years of studying here at SMU I’ll be academically fit enough to have the minds and futures of our next generation placed in my hands for molding.

Brandon Bub is a sophomore majoring in English and edits The Daily Campus opinion column. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]